Mmm…mmm! This week, we are making tuna casserole!
This is Olive ‘N Tuna Super Supper, and this is one of the things I forced Tom to eat over Lent!
- 1 (4-oz) pkg noodles (2 cups)
- 1 (12-oz) pkg frozen asparagus
- 2/3 cup ripe olives
- 2 T butter or margarine
- 2 T flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp dry mustard
- 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1 cup Pet Evaporated Milk
- 1 cup grated American Cheese
- 1 (approx. 7-oz) can tuna
- Cook noodles in boiling salted water until tender. Drain. Cook asparagus according to directions on package. Drain and reserve cooking liquid. Dice stems and leave tips whole. Cut olives from pits into large pieces.
- Melt butter and blend in flour, salt, mustard and Worcestershire sauce. Stir in milk. Add enough water to asparagus cooking liquid to make 1 cup and stir into sauce. Cook and stir until thickened. Remove from heat. Blend in cheese.
- Combine lightly with drained noodles, asparagus stems, olives and tuna in shallow 8-inch round baking dish. Arrange asparagus tips on top, pressing lightly into sauce.
- Baking in moderate oven (350 degrees) 20 mins, or until thoroughly heated.
Quick side note – Have you ever noticed how slimy frozen asparagus is? It is REALLY slimy.
But that didn’t stop me from stirring them into a casserole!
This was by far the most fun I’ve had putting together a recipe in while. Arranging asparagus tips into rows to make a casserole more appealing? Check!
Making Tom eat American cheese so I can take pictures of it? Check!
“Interesting.”
“What? What does it taste like?”
“Not bad. Regular cigarette-butt American cheese aftertaste, but overall not bad. I can’t believe I am saying this, but it tastes like it could use some shrimp.”
The Verdict: Pretty Good
From The Tasting Notes –
A bit bland, but the sauce actually ended up tasting pretty good. Would really be improved with cheddar cheese instead of American, though American cheese really did give it a nice smoothness. Would also be good with other kinds of canned or frozen fish or shellfish, like shrimp. With the addition of the asparagus and olives, it actually gave it a different flavor. I thought it would just taste like mac and cheese, but it actually made it interesting.
I knew it might be pretty good! I may go for it!
Aw! You could have substituted Cheddar Cheese on Tom's piece.
Love the T-Shirt. Love the ad.
Is frozen asparagus somehow slimier than canned? Ew.
Nope! That's against the rules. 🙂
Do it!
Sweet shirt, huh? He got it from Wal-Mart, of all places.
You know, I have never compared the slime factor of canned and frozen asparagus. There might be a post in there somewhere!
Did you use a white American cheese? I have to say I was expecting it to be a little orange in color. Also – Tom is very brave. 🙂
The grocery store where I shop in my small town no longer carries American cheese in bricks, only in pre-wrapped slices, which not only makes this recipe impossible, my favorite mid-century appetizer, the Cheese Puff, can no longer grace my seasonal table.
CANNED asparagus is an abomination before the lord. FROZEN? Not bad at all–if you can’t get fresh, frozen will do.
Awww…boo! That's too bad!
Ha! Olives! I’m always looking for olives/pimento/lemon gelatin in retro recipes. I always wonder about the vast olive/pimento/lemon gelatin cartels that had sunk their claws in American cookery of the 40’s-60’s….
Does your store carry the kind of American cheese that is pre-sliced, but each slice is not individually wrapped? I know Kraft "Deli Deluxe" is packaged that way, and there are a few other brands that do it too. If you can find that, you should still be able to treat your stack of slices as a single block and still shred it. Heck, you could probably even unwrap all the slices in an individually wrapped pack, stack em up, and squish it together (maybe wrap in plastic and put in the fridge with a weight on top for a while?) American cheese is pretty forgiving stuff, I bet you could make it work!
I didn’t even know you could get frozen asparagus. Ewwww. Sounds like the Olive Advisory Board was really stretching it with this one!